Foster’s gets in lionfish fight

Participating in lionfish culling dives is about to become a great deal more affordable for residents in possession of the required culling licence, thanks to Foster’s Food Fair IGA’s donation of $20,000 to the Cayman Islands Tourism Association.  

“When Fosters joined the Cayman Become Campaign [an environmental initiative] in June 2010, and introduced reusable cloth shopping bags, they announced that the five cents charged for every biodegradable shopping bag used would be reinvested in an environmental fund,” said Ayiesha de Cocteau, marketing manager at Foster’s. This fund is then used to support a number of environmental programmes in the Cayman Islands. “The lionfish culling initiative is one programme we are passionate about as the fish have now become a menace in our waters and continue to eradicate too many of a smaller marine animals. In an effort to continue the preservation of our dive sites we have partnered with CITA on this initiative,” added Ms de Cocteau. 

The invasive species, which feed indiscriminately on juvenile reef fish and are capable of reproducing every few days, pose a serious threat to the marine ecosystem and by extension to the dive industry. 

Many residents are now certified to cull lionfish and the Department of Environment has agreed to allow spears to be used when hunting lionfish on scuba, but all agree it is a problem that is here to stay, and will require long term commitment from licensed cullers and dive operators.  

“These funds will contribute to sponsored lionfish hunts, so that more residents can go out with dive operators on lionfish hunting trips, for a lower cost,” explained Tina Christian, CITA director.  

By sponsoring the lionfish dives on a regular basis, residents will be able to go on dedicated lionfish culling dives for around $10, which is significantly less than a standard recreational dive, so will hopefully attract more divers to the cause. The funds will go toward covering some of the dive operators’ costs. “The goal is to have a lionfish hunt every week, or almost every week, which will be spread out over the different dive operators,” Ms Christian confirmed. A schedule for this will be published in due course.  

Furthermore, Foster’s has agreed to a pilot project to sell the lionfish caught on these dives in their grocery stores, along with recipes for suggested lionfish preparation, thus raising awareness of the initiative. It will run as a trial initially for three to six months, while Foster’s and CITA establish whether this can be a viable long term arrangement. 

“In addition part [of the] proceeds from the sale of the fish go back to CITA to be used to replenish the culling fund. We at Foster’s Food Fair are committed to the sustainability of our marine life and hope to educate the community on its importance so they are aware of the impact of such initiatives,” said Ms De Cocteau. 

Through this joint partnership, Foster’s and CITA help to make both lionfish hunting dives and a supply of the lionfish meat more accessible to all. 

In the past, Foster’s has donated $10,000 to the Central Caribbean Marine Institute for their research and educational programmes and to the Guy Harvey initiative to tag and track tiger sharks to increase their sustainability in our water. They also hosted a competition among the schools on Grand Cayman for children to design their own reusable bag. The theme was saving our Marine Life. Five students were chosen to go to the research camp in Little Cayman over the summer and the overall winner’s design was printed on bags which will go on sale next week.